Wednesday, March 7, 2012

Got this engine in today from a third party. The new owner purchased it from Ebay, and had it shipped here... Poor packaging at it's finest..

Just an FYI, a Cardboard Box is NOT enough protection against shipping damages. Even though this engine was completely gutted, it was still damaged badly...

Finding all the broken cooling fins sucks...

Along with several broken studs, and many more broken fins, this engine came in looking a bit sad. Do yourself a favor, and make sure you properly crate your engine when you ship to us...

A complete engine weighs about 155 lbs, and you should have it crated in a plywood box. I like to use a TC Bros Engine Stand, which I can bolt to the crate as well. Make sure to shim up the bottom of the engine as well, so the weight isn't resting on the small studs that hold the engine to the engine stand.

Tuesday, March 6, 2012

Well folks, we've come to a decision today about this riding season, and how it affects HHB.

I've tried for 2 seasons now to get folks to build in the winter, and test/tune in the spring so that they can be riding all summer... Well, you know that never works out, and now that spring is here, everyone wants to get their bike builds finished. The problem is that very few folks have planned out their builds, and we are just swamped with Engine Builds for this season.

As of 4/6/2012, we will not be taking in anymore Complete Engine Builds until the fall. We are simply slammed full with engine builds, crank/cam mods, frame work, and new product design. I hate to put off any of our potential customers, so plan to have your engine to us in the next 30 days, or plan on sending it to us in the Fall.

As always, the customer comes first here at HHB, and if we overbooked ourselves to the extent that I forsee possible, we would be adding months to engine building timeframes, and to me that is just not the way to go about it. Currently, we are 90-120 days out from start to finish, and that number has been stretching longer and longer each day.

If you are planning on building your own engine with our Rephased Cranks and Cams, then you have nothing to worry, as we are still kicking those out 14-20 days from the time we receive them and will be doing so continuously throughout the season

So we had a feller come in here a week ago or so, who has been rebuilding a very nice looking XL250. Yeah, you know the one with the 23" front wheel? Yeah, that one!

He had the bike pretty close to finished, minus that one hard to find item that most all older enduro/dual sport bikes had issues with. His OEM pipe was rusted out completely, and the one on his parts bike was worse.

So we made him a new one - designed to fit the OEM frame, and use the Supertrapp muffler from his parts bike.

Machined a nice fitting sleeve to fit the OEM headpipe, and cut slits in it for a clamp, bent the rest of the pipe in one continuous piece, and then fitted a slightly larger OD tailsection to fit the larger muffler.

Lots of small, out of plane bends, but it worked out very well. Great fit, and looked pretty good too.

Here are few shots of it on the bike. He left the seat at home, but you get the idea. The Supertrapp Muffler fit up nicely, and i bet it sounds pretty good too.

Fit without trimming any of the OEM mudgaurds or heat shields. A tight fit at that.

All said and done, this was a nice challenging break from shipping out parts, and building XS650 goodies... I love that too, but every now and then, something like this comes along and I just can't pass it up.

About Me

A fabricator and designer at heart, with a love for all things metal and automotive. I spend way too much time on the details, but love the results. Spent many years fabricating and designing on my own, and finally pursued a related degree at the age of 30. I'm a proud Graduate of Appalachian State University with a degree in Industrial Design and Product Design.